The Embassy of Italy to Ghana has congratulated the Government of Ghana, the Italian Oil & Gas company, ENI, oil trading company, VITOL and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) for the first oil extracted from the OCTP project well ahead of schedule.

Ghana took a major step towards the attainment of energy and power security when it signed an agreement for the development of the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) integrated oil and gas project under the previous John Dramani Mahama administration.

The $7 billion project, was to be undertaken by Italy's largest oil company, Eni Spa, in collaboration with Vitol Energy, to see to the development of the Sankofa and Gye Nyame fields for the provision of substantial gas to operate Ghana’s thermal power plants for 20 years.

On Thursday 6th July 2017, a ceremony was held at the Takoradi offshore base to officially announce the first oil from the ENI Sankofa-Gye Nyame field. Key personalities present at the event included the President, H.E Nana Akuffo Addo, Former President John Agyekum Kuffuor, Mr. De Scalzi, Chief Executive Officer of ENI, the Chief Operations Officer of Vitol, Mr Taylor and Dr Kofi Kodua Sarpong, the Chief Executive Officer of GNPC.

Commenting on the project, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy, Mr. Lorenzo Pinelli, on behalf of his Ambassador Mr. Giovanni Favilli, said “the OCTP project makes the bilateral relations between Ghana and Italy even stronger. It perfectly fits in a long trail blazed by the first Italians who arrived in Ghana more than 100 years ago in order to build the first roads, railways and mines of this beautiful country.

Our shared and long-standing history continues with many other infrastructural achievements, such as the construction of the Akosombo dam by Impregilo Salini and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) by AGIP/ENI which is currently in this country again with the OCTP project, cementing a long-term partnership between Ghana, Italy, ENI, Vitol, and the GNPC”.

Mr. Pinelli further stated that “even more laudable is the fact that the gas from this field will be commercialized locally in order to drive and promote the development of this country and to put a definitive end to the much hated “dumsor”. The cost of this kind of energy will be significantly economical for the people of Ghana and an added advantage for Small and Medium Enterprises as they further create a larger industrial sector capable of providing thousands of jobs every year”.

The field is estimated to produce 80,000 barrels of oil per day after the start of commercial production and will also start producing gas in the second quarter of 2018. The project will deliver 170 million cubic feet of gas per day and it is expected to generate an additional 1,100 megawatts of power for Ghana.

Gas will be processed and transported via a dedicated pipeline to onshore gas-receiving facilities located near Sanzule, a coastal village in the Western Region. The gas will also be compressed and injected into the Western Corridor Gas Pipeline for transportation to industrial customers in Ghana Crude oil will also be stored in the FPSO and offloaded to tankers for sale on the international market.

Considered as one of the global super-majors, ENI is currently operating in 73 countries and Africa provides over half of ENI’s total production of oil and natural gas, confirming the company as the leading international producer across the continent. The Italian Government owns a 30.303% golden share in ENI.